Mary Ann Houghland’s Pierrot Lunaire, who scored back-to-back Grade 1 victories in the fall, topped the weights for the 2012 National Steeplechase Association Theoretical Handicap, prepared annually by Director of Racing Bill Gallo Jr.
Pierrot Lunaire was rated at 162 pounds in the 21st annual Theoretical Handicap, which gauged all 35 horses who placed in NSA open and novice stakes races in 2012. That rating is close to the 163-pound average of annual highweights since Gallo created the first Theoretical in 1992. Eclipse champion Lonesome Glory holds the record at 170 pounds in 1995.
Trained by Bruce Miller in the spring and thereafter by his daughter, Blythe Miller Davies, Pierrot Lunaire scored consecutive victories against American Steeplechasing’s top competitors in the $150,000 Lonesome Glory Stakes at Belmont Park and the $250,000 Grand National at Far Hills, N.J., to close out his season. With $253,000 in 2012 purses, the War Chant gelding was honored with the Lonesome Glory Champions Award as the year’s top earner. Second in the weights at 160 pounds was Jacqueline Ohrstrom’s Demonstrative, who also had two Grade 1 victories, the $150,000 New York Turf Writers Cup at Saratoga Race Course and the $100,000 Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup in Camden, S.C. The Elusive Quality gelding was scratched from the Lonesome Glory after his regular jockey, Robbie Walsh, was injured in the previous race, and he finished fourth in the Grand National.
Third in the weights at 158 pounds was Irvin S. Naylor’s Black Jack Blues, the 2011 Eclipse Award winner who scored a dominant victory in his only 2012 start, the Carolina Cup at Camden.
Here is the complete 2012 Theoretical Handicap:
Pierrot Lunaire 162
Demonstrative 160
Black Jack Blues (Ire) 158
Arcadius 156
Divine Fortune 154
Spy in the Sky 152
Decoy Daddy (Ire) 150
Via Galilei (Ire) 150
Charminster (Ire) 148
Country Cousin 148
Gustavian 146
Parker’s Project 146
Rainiero (Chi) 146
Royal Bonsai (GB) 146
Alajmal 144
Ballet Boy (Ire) 144
Baltic Shore 144
Dahoud (NZ) 144
Fog Island 144
History Boy 144
Pullyourfingerout (Ire) 144
Sergeant Karakorum 144
Left Unsaid 142
All Together 140
Barnstorming 140
Cornhusker (GB) 140
Wanganui 140
Brave Prospect 138
Forgotten Man 138
Nationbuilder 138
Trippo 138
Class Indian 136
Saint Dynaformer 136
Wantan (Arg) 136
Birthday Beau 134
